Estimating the Extent of Religious and Spiritual Activity in Australia Using Time–Budget Data

The amount of religious and spiritual activity in a society is usually estimated by surveys, census data, participant records, and membership data. Most of these do not provide a comparison of religious with other activities and suffer from significant halo effects. Time–budget data provide the basis for estimating religious activity as a percentage of all time and enable comparisons with other similar activities. This analysis of time–budget data from a nationally representative sample of Australians reveals that religious and spiritual activities are engaged in by 10 percent of households, constitute 0.28 percent of all activities compared with 0.26 percent for sporting and cultural attendances and 1.49 percent for sport and outdoor leisure activities.